Transmission is back in ...

I set out this evening to put the transmission back in the Mercury. I had a plan - which held together for about 1/2 the experience. Then I had many many alternate plans and a fair amount of winging it.

I jacked the car back up as high as it would go and then went through about 4 or 5 iterations of 'how do I balance the transmission" on my floor jack. The first plan started beautifully and then came undone within seconds of rolling under the car. I tried in vain to reset without crawling back out from under the car, but I was not strong enough to lift 100lbs and scoot the jack in place with my foot while laying on my back or side.

So I dragged everything out and tried several configurations. I learned many lessons in these experiments - including how to operate the jack with my legs while I used my arms to weasel it into position.

Eventually I got the spindle into the hole - I tilted the transmission and the engine several times and got it to seat all but the last 1/2 inch. I kicked and wiggled and pulled it out and tried to slam it home and talked to it real sweet like and could not get it to seat all the way. It was close enough for 2 of the bottom bolts, but the top 2 would not engage.

I decided to change focus and see if I could get the transmission cross member back in place. I wedged a piece of 2x4 under the transmission tail so I could use my jack to hold the cross member in the air while I fit the bolts. It was mostly mundane, but I did use a hammer to seat it home and that sent a shower of rust all over me.

Then I lowered the transmission onto the cross member. Half an inch from seated doesn't seem like much, but it kept the transmission "foot" from aligning with the bolt holts on the cross member. Once again I spoke very kindly to the transmission - then I got a 2x4 and a 2.5lbs sledge and tried to put the quietus on that beast. That didn't work either.

For some reason, I decided to try and turn the flywheel by rotating the balancer pulley. After about 1/4 turn the transmission tilted a little and went "WONK". So - I crawled back under the pushed ... and nothing. Then I checked to see if I could turn the 2 bolts I had and now THAT worked ... a little on the left, a little on the right, and it went all the way home.

In terms of injuries, I have a sore palm from catching the transmission when it fell - my left hip is bruised for some reason - and while I was thrashing under there on the creeper I rolled over the back of my left arm. That one hurts the worst.

Tomorrow I will put the top of the engine back together and then load the interior with all the parts I am not going to reattach.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

No valve for you today

Image
I thought I wanted to remove my valves and valve seats. To do that, I needed a spring compressor tool. These things come in lots of shapes and sizes. Some of them look like a bent fork and rely on having the rocker arms in place (or at least the studs). Some of them look like a giant C-clamp that connects on both sides of valve. They rely on the heads being off. Some of them look like the Recognizer from the movie Tron - with a screw on top and hooks down the side. They range in price from: free for loan at the autoparts store to this thing with umpteen parts for $75. I was going to borrow the one from the parts store - but it gave me the willys. I looked at it several times and kept coming to the conclusion that I was going to hate using that tool or get injured in the process. Oreilly's and Autozone loan the screw-hook Tron thing, but the hooks are not well designed for gripping a heavy duty spring. I am sure with a hose clamp to secure it I could make it work but I didn't w
Read more

Not really a hateful 8 ...

Image
It was more like one apathetic and one stubborn and 6 who just needed to be told what to do. The OCPOTI* gave me LOTS of good advice about why the motor was stuck. Some of it I was even able to follow. pistons are rusted to the cylinder walls, why not check the rod bearings, and that timing chain looks rusty. So I pulled a couple of rod caps and looked at the crank journal. Not only do the crank and bearings look pretty good - I think it is so cool that they stamp the "FoMoCo" logo and a registered trademark symbol on the underside of a piece of metal almost no one is ever going to see. A nice show of pride there. Mid-week, Other_Doug dropped by to look at the machine. I told him I was having trouble removing the crank bolt - and so he asked if he could borrow my breaker bar, put it on the bolt and threw his shoulder at it like he was doing the shot put. It turned right out. That seemed to ignite a flurry of activity - and so while the engine still world not turn, we removed
Read more

Broken wrench, dirt drench - transmission out, really really greasy snout

Image
My father-in-law came over to work on the car today. He brought with him pluck and determination. He also reaped the benfit of the penetrating oil I had sprayed before him. Once we had coffee and got ourselves situated, we went to work. Of course it took him several minutes to understand what I had been talking about regarding the offending transmission bolts. Those 2 holding the transmission are really hard to see if you aren't looking for them. Even more so when you consider the distraction caused by the nine other bolts which are right in front of you. He immediately pointed out that we needed more room to crank. So we raised the car another 2 or 3 inches. In the front, I am using 2 jack stands I bought years ago that are pretty good, but we are 1 notch down from as high as they will go. In the back I am using 2 jack stands that came with the car. They were probably made before I was born and are 3-legged. While 3-legged is a good way to frame a metaphor about balanced expectati
Read more